Follow people by using the .NET client object model in SharePoint

Learn how to work with Following People features by using the SharePoint .NET client object model.

Why use Following People features in SharePoint?

In SharePoint, when a user follows people, the posts and activities of the followed people show up in the user's newsfeed. By using Following People features to focus on the people who users care about, you can improve the relevance of your app or solution. In the .NET client object model, people that you follow are represented by SocialActor objects. To perform core Following People tasks in the .NET client object model, you use the SocialFollowingManager object. This article shows how to use the .NET client object model to work with Following People features.

Prerequisites for setting up your development environment to work with Following People features by using the SharePoint .NET client object model

To create a console application that uses the .NET client object model to work with Following People features, you'll need the following:

• SharePoint with My Site configured, and with user profiles and personal sites created for the current user and a target user

• Visual Studio 2012

• Full Control access permissions to the User Profile service application for the logged-on user

Create a console application in Visual Studio 2012

1. Open Visual Studio, and choose File, New, Project.

2. In the New Project dialog box, choose .NET Framework 4.5 from the drop-down list at the top of the dialog box.

3. In the Templates list, choose Windows, and then choose the Console Application template.

4. Name the project FollowPeopleCSOM, and then choose the OK button.

5. Add references to the following assemblies:

• Microsoft.SharePoint.Client
• Microsoft.SharePoint.ClientRuntime
• Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.UserProfiles

6. Replace the contents of the Program class with the code example from one of the following scenarios:

• Start and stop following people
• Get followers and followed people

7. To test the console application, on the menu bar, choose Debug, Start Debugging.

Code example: Start or stop following people by using the SharePoint .NET client object model

The following code example makes the current user start following or stop following a target user. It shows how to:

• Check whether the current user is following a target user by using the IsFollowed method.

• Get the count of people who the current user is following by using the GetFollowedCount method.

• Start following the target user by using the Follow method.

• Stop following the target user by using the StopFollowing method.

This code example uses the SocialFollowResult object that is returned by the Follow method to determine whether to start or stop following the target user.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using Microsoft.SharePoint.Client;
using Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.Social;

namespace FollowPeopleCSOM
{
    class Program
    {
        static ClientContext clientContext;
        static SocialFollowingManager followingManager;
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {

            // Replace the following placeholder values with the target
            // server URL and target user.
            const string serverUrl = "http://serverName";
            const string targetUser = "domainName\\\\userName";

            // Get the client context.
            clientContext = new ClientContext(serverUrl);

            // Get the SocialFeedManager instance.
            followingManager = new SocialFollowingManager(clientContext);

            // Create a SocialActorInfo object to represent the target user.
            SocialActorInfo actorInfo = new SocialActorInfo();
            actorInfo.AccountName = targetUser;

            // Find out whether the current user is following the target user.
            ClientResult<bool> isFollowed = followingManager.IsFollowed(actorInfo);

            // Get the information from the server.
            clientContext.ExecuteQuery();

            Console.WriteLine("Was the current user following the target user? {0}\\n", isFollowed.Value);
            Console.Write("Initial count: ");

            // Get the current count of followed people.
            WriteFollowedCount();

            // Try to follow the target user. If the result is OK, then
            // the request succeeded.
            ClientResult<SocialFollowResult> result = followingManager.Follow(actorInfo);
            clientContext.ExecuteQuery();

            // If the result is AlreadyFollowing, then stop following 
            // the target user.
            if (result.Value == SocialFollowResult.AlreadyFollowing)
            {
                followingManager.StopFollowing(actorInfo);
                clientContext.ExecuteQuery();
            }

            // Handle other SocialFollowResult return values.
            else if (result.Value == SocialFollowResult.LimitReached
                || result.Value == SocialFollowResult.InternalError)
            {
                Console.WriteLine(result.Value);
            }

            // Get the updated count of followed people.
            Console.Write("Updated count: ");
            WriteFollowedCount();
            Console.ReadKey();
        }

        // Get the count of the people who the current user is following.
        static void WriteFollowedCount()
        {
            ClientResult<int> followedCount = followingManager.GetFollowedCount(SocialActorTypes.Users);
            clientContext.ExecuteQuery();
            Console.WriteLine("The current user is following {0} people.", followedCount.Value);
        }
    }
}

Code example: Get followers and followed people by using the SharePoint .NET client object model

The following code example gets the people who the current user is following, gets the people who are followed by the current user, and gets information about the current user's Following People status. It shows how to:

• Check whether the current user is following a target user by using the IsFollowed method.

• Get the count of people who the current user is following by using the GetFollowedCount method.

• Get the people who the current user is following by using the GetFollowed method.

• Get the people who are following the current user by using the GetFollowers method.

• Iterate through the groups of people and get each person's display name, personal URI, and picture URI.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using Microsoft.SharePoint.Client;
using Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.Social;

namespace FollowPeopleCSOM
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {

            // Replace the following placeholder values with the target
            // server URL and target user.
            const string serverUrl = "http://serverName";
            const string targetUser = "domainName\\\\userName";

            // Get the client context.
            ClientContext clientContext = new ClientContext(serverUrl);
            
            // Get the SocialFeedManager instance.
            SocialFollowingManager followingManager = new SocialFollowingManager(clientContext);

            // Create a SocialActorInfo object to represent the target user.
            SocialActorInfo actorInfo = new SocialActorInfo();
            actorInfo.AccountName = targetUser;

            // Find out whether the current user is following the target user.
            ClientResult<bool> isFollowed = followingManager.IsFollowed(actorInfo);

            // Get the count of people who the current user is following.
            ClientResult<int> followedCount = followingManager.GetFollowedCount(SocialActorTypes.Users);

            // Get the people who the current user is following.
            ClientResult<SocialActor[]> followedResult = followingManager.GetFollowed(SocialActorTypes.Users);

            // Get the people who are following the current user.
            ClientResult<SocialActor[]> followersResult = followingManager.GetFollowers();

            // Get the information from the server.
            clientContext.ExecuteQuery();

            // Write the results to the console window.
            Console.WriteLine("Is the current user following the target user? {0}\\n", isFollowed.Value);
            Console.WriteLine("People who the current user is following: ({0} count)", followedCount.Value);
            IterateThroughPeople(followedResult.Value);
            Console.WriteLine("\\nPeople who are following the current user:");
            IterateThroughPeople(followersResult.Value);
            Console.ReadKey();
        }

        // Iterate through the people and get each person's display
        // name, personal URI, and picture URI.
        static void IterateThroughPeople(SocialActor[] actors)
        {
            foreach (SocialActor actor in actors)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("  - {0}", actor.Name);
                Console.WriteLine("\\tPersonal URI: {0}", actor.PersonalSiteUri);
                Console.WriteLine("\\tPicture URI: {0}", actor.ImageUri);
            }
        }
    }
}

See also

• Follow people in SharePoint

• How to: Follow people by using the JavaScript object model in SharePoint

• How to: Follow documents and sites by using the .NET client object model in SharePoint